Fenix Blog

Life in Japan after the Earthquake and Tsunami

by Mike Lin on March 20, 2011

It's hard to imagine what life might be like after such a powerful earthquake and tsunami. We've compiled a short list of articles and excerpts to try and help us better understand the what is happening half a world away. 

 

Photos:

NY Times: Continuously updates photos from Japan at their website here. 

 

Articles:

NY Times: Life in Shelters

OFUNATO, Japan — For the past five days Takiko Kinno has slept on a crowded gymnasium floor, without electricity or running water and living on food rations that in the beginning amounted to one and a half rice balls per day.

Shelter residents often live in desperate and primitive conditions with little more than a roof over their heads. They have endured days of living in the dark and cold, an ordeal made even worse on Wednesday as a winter storm brought heavy snow and below-freezing temperatures to many devastated areas. The privations underscore the difficulties that Japan has faced in responding to the 700,000 refugees created by Friday’s earthquake and tsunami, the nation’s largest humanitarian crisis since World War II.
...
The waves swept away everything else they owned, and in many cases their savings as well, because many older Japanese keep their savings in their dressers, not a bank. Those who have bank accounts could not withdraw money because power problems froze A.T.M. networks. “I would leave tomorrow if I could,” said Emi Sasaki, 64, a homemaker living at the gym with her daughter and granddaughter. “Access to phones and money would let me at least try to find a place to live.”
...
They also feel cut off from their families and the outside world, with no phones or newspapers or Internet access. Meanwhile, the closure of highways and lack of goods have slowed government efforts to deliver more supplies. “We have no idea what will happen to us next,” said Ms. Kikuchi, 71, whose home and cigarette stand were destroyed by the waves. “I cannot call relatives or friends to ask for help.”

 

Reuters: Factbox Statistics 

About 256,819 households in the north were without electricity as of late Saturday, Tohuku Electric Power Co. says.

 

Platts: Electricity Capacity Shortage

Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Banri Kaieda said Sunday that Tokyo Electric Power Company's supply capacity will be short by 10GW from Monday, leaving the company with a "significant shortage of electricity."

Categories: Social Change

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